Tag Archives: Stella Artois

Intergalactic

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OK, I’m cheating. I am writing this the next day since it was too late last night and I just didn’t wanna. The cheating part will be when I post it under yesterday’s date. Yesterday was a slow day. Slow enough to warrant a nap.

And nap is what I did. After running errands, doing laundry and cleaning up the apartment some more. Heard from Rita, thanking me for her birthday card. Also heard from Earl, thanking me for the Beatles CD’s I gave him.

Since I bought myself the remasters I decided to give him my older copies. Heard from my brother Frank who was just checking in. Told him all about seeing Leon Russell the previous Sunday. He was off to his 40th High School reunion.

Nice that he goes to these things. I doubt if I would ever go to my 30th which would be next year. I learned my lesson at the 20th year reunion. I lived life for 20 years without seeing my former classmates and plan on continuing to do so without seeing them ever again.

I was invited to a Yahoo groups function in the city and was mostly wishy washy about going. When I woke up from the nap I was still wishy washy. But like the drone I used to be when I was working, I got out of bed and put on a suit and tie and got myself together.

I have been meaning to mention that now I feel really unemployed since I canceled my bus pass and since I don’t have a bus pass anymore I decided to take the Path train into the city. Plus at the hour of 6:00 it made more sense to do that rather than sit in traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel.

I walked up to west 46th Street to the Ritz Bar where the function was taking place. It was similar to the Yahoo group parties I used to go to a few years ago. I met the guy who invited me, Gary from Los Angeles and he was quite happy to see me.

I almost didn’t go but Gary was glad that I did. Also met Rob who is someone I’ve chatted with a while ago. He used to live in Hillsdale, now he lives in Freehold. It was a nice group and it was definitely good for my ego. And it was a good networking opportunity.

I had a few Stella Artois and after an hour or two I was headed to Hoboken to have drinks with Rand & Lisa, to celebrate RoDa’s birthday. I had burned a few CD’s of Girl Talk, Air & Scritti Politti for RoDa. I’ve talked those groups up often enough that it made sense that RoDa should actually hear them.

I stood outside having a smoke when Bill ambled up. I told him about meeting up at McSwells and was surprised to have him show up. He likes RoDa too so it made sense.

Lois and Fred showed up with Rand and Lisa and we all sat at a table, munching on curly fries and having a few drinks. RoDa was actually working so he couldn’t sit with us the whole time but did hang for a few minutes here and there. It was a nice, sort of impromptu night.

For me, there was enough Stella Artois to not want to write last night, but here I am now, trying to make amends. So there.

The apartment next to the Ritz Bar.

The apartment next to the Ritz Bar.

Fine For Now

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Well last night was mainly me being exhausted from the afternoon’s events. I would have preferred being exhausted from bicycling over 30 miles, but no, it was the emotional wringer I had gone through.

Juan came by last night and that was good. We sat on the stoop for a while where I enjoyed a cigar and had 2 Stella Artois to Juan’s 1. He won the award for having a tumultuous life, he being without a roof over his head at the moment and people that were willing to help him out turning into douche bags.

Made my tale of woe seem like a walk in the park.

After my cigar we came upstairs where Bill was watching Snatch. The movie not the genital slang. I had seen it a number of years ago with my friend Miriam and it was still a fun movie to watch. A tad violent of course but darkly funny.

After that I threw in a DVD of The Buddha of Suburbia, which was written by Hanif Kureishi. Kureishi also wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy & Rosie Get Laid and London Kills Me.

His books and screenplays are mainly about the interaction and love lives of Asian Indians and Westerners, mainly the British. Very enjoyable and eye opening as well as risque which in my eyes is a good combination.

Naveen Andrews who plays on Lost as Sayid is in The Buddha of Suburbia as the Hanif Kureishi role. Teen-aged then, he shows his ‘how do you do’ a few times. It was a 4 episode series from the BBC and we only caught the first 2.

After that we watched the repeats of Lost on ABC which featured the more muscular Naveen Andrews with a thicker middle eastern accent.

Bill was in bed by the time that ended and Juan was soon out the door after that, coming back after I texted him to tell Juan that he left his phone charger here.

I slept the sleep of the exhausted and having a total of 5 Stella Artois under by belt made for a deep sleep.

In the morning, Bill was off to church again kissing me goodbye and I soon got out of bed, took off my clothes and went to take a shower when I realized I was still pretty tired and could use some more sleep so I went back to bed sleeping naked under the sheets which was really nice.

Bill had gotten bagels from H&H in the city yesterday so there was no need to deal with canary face at the bagel shop on Washington Street. But I did go out since I wanted the Sunday papers. Nothing that I could have missed there but still some habits die hard.

Around 2:00 I went out, to the river and sat by the soccer pitch reading the Eno biography. It was almost comforting that Brian Eno had some crisis of self doubt when making some of his landmark albums.

The same self doubt that I suffer from occasionally. Not that reading about Eno’s self doubt helped me, but the realization that it happens to a lot of people helped me think that as usual, self doubt is a momentary thing. Crippling for sure, but eventually you can walk again.

I sat for a few hours just reading and watching people and ocean liners go by.

Sitting there made me think that Hoboken is no longer the hipster town it used to be, if it ever was. Especially compared to Williamsburg yesterday. We drove past McCarren Park which was swarming with hipsters in tight jeans and fedoras.

It was off putting somewhat. Juan mentioned that no one wears fedoras anymore, only the ones that don’t know any better, and there they were, the ones that didn’t know any better.